tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873009918100574338.post5589012179655087328..comments2024-02-05T09:17:53.322-08:00Comments on Adrian Barlow's blog: History, Heaney and Hilary MantelAdrian Barlowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04526714501872493961noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873009918100574338.post-57755392761970257642013-11-22T08:21:33.637-08:002013-11-22T08:21:33.637-08:00This is a really excellent and analytical riposte ...This is a really excellent and analytical riposte to a churlish reaction against the public affections for Seamus Heaney.<br />We should not be surprised at Charles Moore’s stance. The Spectator is not, after all, given to dealing with the inexact science of living. Its lingering affection for all things Thatcherite favours dogma over doubt, so the sort of considered ambivalence you reveal in Heaney’s poetry would be anathema to the resolute stance demanded by the Spectatorites (by the way, for a more candid view of life with Thatcher, Jonathan Aitken’s book published this year is far more - I’ll say it again – ambivalent, than Charles Moore’s account).<br />Ultimately, this blog did what all really good criticism does: it sent me back to the poetry itself. I dug out “Polish Sleepers” from District and Circle, a personal favourite. The mind links a serene moment in Ireland with the possibility of the murderous path that a railway takes towards WWII prison camps. Silence, again, seems to bear witness to both events, standing in judgement over how we may one day destroy ourselves.<br />Anilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07297710417543760428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873009918100574338.post-87825200425498583612013-11-20T14:25:25.057-08:002013-11-20T14:25:25.057-08:00Adrian – I do not know if Heaney’s lines, “but wou...Adrian – I do not know if Heaney’s lines, “but would have cast, I know / the stones of silence” would not apply to most of us – and in more situations than we might care to think about. I remember feeling that Heaney ought to have spoken out – perhaps in a kind of Yeatsian rage – about the truly sickening killing that was taking place – on both sides of the divide. But then I remembered the fate of Ross McWhirter . . . And anyway, Heaney was not like Yeats in this respect. Strictly, I think that Heaney’s situation was nearly impossible, and that he did as much as he dared under the circumstances. And, to what end had Heaney been assassinated? The implacable hatred and deep–rooted bitterness would have carried on just the same: perhaps even with a temporary increase in the violence – if such can be imagined . . . Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07119180758113013415noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873009918100574338.post-40167828603238236572013-11-03T12:52:43.847-08:002013-11-03T12:52:43.847-08:00Well, Tom, I confess that I've not come across...Well, Tom, I confess that I've not come across 'The Habit of Perfection' before (my loss!) but I'm sure Heaney would have done at St Columba's in Derry. Perhaps it was an unconscious borrowing a bad Heaney changed it to 'your much contested silence' when he realised what he'd done. Many thanks indeed for pointing this out. AdrianAdrian Barlowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04526714501872493961noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873009918100574338.post-42883800439347622772013-11-02T13:38:14.620-07:002013-11-02T13:38:14.620-07:00Thanks yet again, Adrian. Is Seferis's 'el...Thanks yet again, Adrian. Is Seferis's 'elected silence' not just a sharp observation by Heaney on Greek politics but also an allusion to Hopkins's poem The Habit of Perfection, invoking poetry as a quasi-spiritual calling? Sorry if this is a] wrong or b] obvious. tomdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03766237341387024779noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873009918100574338.post-48232069003728708732013-11-01T12:44:28.245-07:002013-11-01T12:44:28.245-07:00Courage is conviction. Conviction beauty. That is ...Courage is conviction. Conviction beauty. That is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.Garry Headlandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07741556616880181278noreply@blogger.com